The decision was not a shock: Skins premiered in January to 3.3 million total viewers (and 2.7 million in the core 12-34 demographic) in a post-"Jersey Shore" slot before losing half of its viewership for the second episode — with heavy movie promotions and network promos, a sign of advertiser defection — which drew 1.6 million.

Near the end of its freshman season, "Skins" saw slight improvement in the ratings, luring 1.2 million for the closer — up a tick from the penultimate episode (1.1 million).

MTV issued a statement regarding the cancellation: " 'Skins' is a global television phenomenon that, unfortunately, didn’t connect with a U.S. audience as much as we had hoped. We admire the work that the series’ creator Bryan Elsley did in adapting the show for MTV, and appreciate the core audience that embraced it."

Back in April, MTV's David Janollari told THR of "Skins' " future, "Moving forward, a decision hasn’t been made yet. But we’re very pleased with the way the show did. We obviously made a huge noise with that. We’re happy with the ratings and the reaction that we got from viewers."

The cable network isn't a stranger to such controversy, however. In 2009, Dominos distanced itself from Jersey Shore after groups disapproved over the cast's use of the ethnic slur "Guido."